The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-03
POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS
LEVIED BY TAMMANY HALL AS
HIGH AS $185,000
For One Campaign to Satisfy Gin.
ina's, Thieves and changers
On Of the Yilest Dens.

The New York Hour: City Cham.
berlain Wins has rendered most
important public service in exposing,
as he has done in lecture this week,
the secrets of the political halls in
regard to the expenses of our mu-
nicipal elections. There is no man
better informed on the subject than
he is. He was what we call the
right hand man Of Mr.. Grace during
that gentleman's four years incum-
bency of the MayOralty, and for the
last half dozen years he has held po-
sitions which enabled him to know
whereof he is now speaking in so.
interesting a manner. To be told
that upward of 100000 were ex-
pended in the political contest in
this city last November is enough to
take the breath away. Everyone
knew that vast sums of money were
required to carry on political cam
paign, but not one in thousand
citizens, outside the circle of the
political wire pullers, had the faint
est idea that the expense Of filling
the offices in this county, in other
words, Of getting men to vote, is of
such stupendous proportions. Mr..
WINS estimates that in a
Presidential year the cost is, at
the very least, 81 100000. The can
didates for Office pay this vast sum of
money in the first place, but 10 the
enl it nearly all comes out of the
pockets of the people. The fact, is
politics has become a profession, a
pursuit, an industry, if we may so
term it, and men follow it, not to
serve the public but to acquire a liv-
ing, and if they can, a for une.
There are of course, some men in
public lif. who have sought official
station for the distinction it confers
and the opportunity it affords of
achieving what is called fame, but
even in a body so large as the Con-
gress of the United States, they can
be counted on the fingers of the two
hands. In the Senate and Assembly
at Albany there are not, in all proba-
bility, five men who have not sought
the positions they fill in order to ad-
vance their private interests. AL
most without an excep ion, they are
there to make money-to sell their
votes to the highest bidder. The
money put into politics by candidates
for office must be got back in some
way by these who find themselves at
the head of the polls. The salary is
not sufficient to do so, and the only
way of accomplishing it is by bribery
and corruption. Between 1880 and
1886, says Mr.. WINS, the assessments
by either organization were not less
than 100000 nor more than S25O, 600
during each campaign. In 1876 the
Tammauy Hall assessments aggre-
gated $l65,000, and alter 1880 they
probably never saw a lower figure.
In 1888 John Reilly, who was then
nominated for Registrar, paid an as
sessment of $50, 600; judicial nom
nations brought as high as $50, 600;
that Of District Attorney from
$4,000 to SIS, 900, and the Mayoralty
assessment has reached as high as
$25, 900. These figures are enough to
paralyze the Democratic party"
aft" observes Mr.. WINS, "a man
were as great as Caesar, as brilliant as
Napoleon, or as good as st. Paul, he
could not get the nomination for
Mayor Of this city unless he
chase it" Mr.. Hewitt was com
PEELED to pay when he was
nominated last fall, although be did
not seek the nomination, and Mr..
Grace before him was obliged to
draw his check for $4,000 to give
the reform element within the Dem
ocratic ranks and the down town
business men an opportunity of vot-
ing for him. A system of this kind
is Infamous. 1t is a blot upon re-
publican government and menace
to the Republic ITSELF 1t should be
swept cut of existence, root and
branch, at the very first opportuni-
ty. The remedy is very simple. 1t |
is to give the State entire charge of
the machinery Of election, and there
by cut OFF the army of political janis
saries who now come between the |
people and their candidate for Office.
According to Mr.. WINS the number
of these political "heelers" is now
about 40 per cent. Of the total num-
Der of voters in the city. In other
words, forty voters in every 100 are
paid on election day for their services
by the two old political ma
chimes. What is this but bri-
berry on a magnificent scale? 1.-THE |
classes whom it is thus found neces-
sary to conciliate and satisfy are the
very worst in the community. They
are criminals and ex- criminals of all
kinds, gamblers, thieves and
hangers on" of the vilest dens in
the metropolis. 1t is horrible to
think that NO man can be elected to !
Office in the first of American cities,
from the highest Judge on the bench |
down to an Alderman, without pay |
ing tribute to these outlaws and po-
litical pirates. Honest men of every |
shade of opinion should unite in WHIP
ing out so great stain upon popular
administration, and averting from